The Sun, the Sea and Dali – Figueres, Spain

“Have no fear of perfect. You’ll never reach it.”

Salvador Dali

Yesterday’s visit to Figueres, Spain to the Teatro Museo Dali is a “must” if you are spending any time in this colorful Catalan part of the world. In fact, my day couldn’t have been more perfect;  arriving in Figueres around noon, a 2 hour tour of Dali’s works, followed by a seafood paella lunch and then a drive to Cadaques, the picturesque Mediterranean village where Dali’s spent his childhood.

At 13 years old, Dali wrote “At the side of the Latin sea, I have quenched my desire for light and color; I have spent the sultry summer days, painting like mad, trying to translate the incomparable beauty of the sea and sun-beaten shore”.

Rather surprisingly, the museum, while packed with October viewers, offered almost no curator support for these important Dali works. In a way, that was good; I could form my own impressions. Clearly Dali subscribed to no artistic rules, was hugely prolific, and off-the-wall, creative. I kept flashing back to my first introduction to the works of Picasso in Antibes. (http://en.nicetourisme.com/pro-details-travel-trade/1371).

With a little bit more research, I learned that  Dalí made several trips to Paris, where he met with influential painters and intellectuals such as Pablo Picasso, whom he revered and who introduced Dalí to Surrealism.

Don’t forget to stop at La Rambla in Figueres for your seafood paella. It was muy delicioso!